Recently the support of sustainable farming has increased for many reasons. Among those are soil depletion, contamination from chemicals, climate change, as well as an increasing desire by people to purchase food grown locally. The main implements used in farming and gardening are: plows, harrows, rotary tillers, manure spreaders and seeders and they all are normally used separately requiring expensive labor, time and fuel to plant a field. No-till and low-till methods are becoming widely popular by cutting the expense of plowing and heavy tilling. The movement toward sustainable farming has created a need for a compact unit that can accomplish the basic functions of traditional farming machinery and can be used on small or large acreages in a low-till mode reducing labor and eliminating or reducing plowing, the use of fuel, synthetic fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,556,072 to Dewey 1948 Planter shows a multifunctional implement intended for planting in rubble. It includes ground breaking, fertilizing, rotary tilling and seeding tools. It does not show a way to mount the tractor via a 3 point hitch. The invention requires a complex series of right angle gears mounted in several places to the tractor frame. This configuration would make it cost prohibitive to mount on any modern (post 1960) tractors. Additionally, the fertilizer bins as shown are of the type that process fertilizer in pellet or granulated form. As described the invention could not fertilize with raw animal manure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,670 Johnson 2000 Rotary tiller attachment to facilitate towing shows how to pull implements with a walking rotary tiller but not a riding tractor and not a fertilizing implement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,551 Farley 1993 extended drag tool for a front tine tiller is only for a front tine walking tiller but mentions nothing related to fertilizing or seeding.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,996 Sprinkle rotary tilling attachment for facilitating turning again only addresses modifications for walking tractors. The invention is not a multi-functioning implement and does not suggest a fertilizing attachment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,849 Kincaid Guard assembly for earth tillers Is a guard for tiller tines and nothing else.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,334 Tanner et al. Machine for filling ruts in an agricultural field presents a machine for filling ruts and has no other function
U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,413 Hirata Rotary cultivating apparatus of laterally shiftable type shows and relates to a rotary tiller that can be shafted in the lateral direction. It does not suggest a multifunctional implement nor a fertilizing apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,671 Mays Sep. 1, 1981 Kit for converting a rotary tiller into a plow relates to a walking tiller only.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,506 Penley 1974 Cultivating Assembly Is simply a way of modifying a walking rotary tiller to perform as a cultivator. It does not suggest a multifunctional implement nor a fertilizing apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,118 A Weeks (1983) Multi-hitch apparatus for tandem towing of farm implements shows a way to combine functions in tandem but lacks the compactness desired on small farms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,892 A to Foster (1998) Leveling harrow posits a harrow used for breaking ground where crop residue is abundant. It also has leveling qualities but does not grind the residue into the soil under PTO power nor does it have a mounting feature for a seeder or a fertilizer box.
U.S. Pat. No. 987,388 A to Marsht (1911) Fertilizer-drill attachment to cultivators and plows describes a fertilizer bin mounted on a plow or cultivator and a mixing wheel to churn the fertilizer for free flow but has no way to meter the output evenly other than the orifice at the output. This claim is ancient but it hints at the diversity needed in farm tools.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,753,133 B2 Skolness (2009) Crust fracturing implement describes a method of breaking the crust of the ground using rotary tines to prepare the ground for seeding but does not penetrate the soil deeper than a few inches, does not have positive depth control and does not till the complete area to disparage weeds, does not have a leveling apron and does not mark the prepared soil for seeding nor does it have a mounting features for a seeder or a fertilizer box.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,864,293 Foltzer et al (1958) Garden tool combinations discusses a design that uses a single power module to attach a rotary tiller, mower and more but does not address any actual gardening processes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,661 A McCanse, Dhaliwal (1983) Rear mounted rotary tiller shows a traditional rotary tiller design that is powered by a tractor normally used for grinding the soil prior to planting but does not provide adjustable depth control or adjustable row marking skids nor does it have mounting features for a seeder or a fertilizer box.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,023 Bedwell (1973) Control for ground tools of farm implements is stated as a control for farm implements which provides the alternative of raising and lowering a pair of the ground-engaging tools as a unit or individually and relative to each other yet is not compact and does not discuss fertilizing or seeding in the same implement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,847 Meiners (1992) Height adjustment mechanism for farm implements is another way to control depth of tools but doesn't address combining separate tools into one implement.
CN 202514293 U Foreign inventor (1999) Multipurpose farm implements relates only to deep plowing collecting stubbles, loosening soil but doesn't include fertilizing or seeding.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,128,729A Henson (1964) All purpose farm machine is a multi functional farming system that performs a multitude of farm operations however the design is cumbersome and requires significant modifications to a tractor.